Explaining crime and social control in Tanzania mainland:  an historical social economic perspective

Shaidi, Leonard Paulo

Explaining crime and social control in Tanzania mainland: an historical social economic perspective

Date

1985

Authors

Shaidi, Leonard Paulo

Publisher

University of Dar es Salaam

Abstract

The central hypotheses of this thesis dwells around the following themes: first, the explanation of crime as a creation of the state (criminalization of conduct). Secondly, the explanation of conduct (acts and omissions) as a product of the society. Third, although the major function of criminal law is to foster social control, the state employs other non-coercive measures to achieve the same goal which cannot be ignored. Fourth, criminal law and coercive measures are sometimes directed at goals which have no immediate relationship with social control, especially in states with a poor economic base. Traditionally crime or criminal conduct has been regarded as inherently ‘bad’ behaviour, and treated as if this has eternally been so. Contrary to this belief it is argued that there is nothing intrinsically ‘criminal’ in censured behaviour. In other words the ‘criminality’ of an act or omission lies in the social censure and not in its inherent nature. The state having censured certain acts and omissions with the support of its coercive and ideological apparatuses manages to stigmatize such practices and the participants as abnormal. Through an historical analysis of the phenomenon of crime and social control, it is argued that most censured practices or crimes are a form of individual self preservative conditions of a class society. The victims are nor sick or abnormal, but normal human beings responding in a normal and often rational way to the prevailing socio-economic conditions. It is shown historically how changes in the social formation breeds new forms of behaviour, and how the state responds in both regulating and suppressing those forms of behaviour which threaten the reproduction of the prevailing social relations. This thesis is divided into five chapters corresponding generally to the historical stages in the development of Tanzania, with exception of chapter one which deals with basic theoretical questions considered to be relevant to this work.

Description

Available in print form

Keywords

Criminal law, Tanzania, Crime prevention

Citation

Shaidi, L. P (1985) Explaining crime and social control in Tanzania mainland: an historical social economic perspective, Doctoral dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at ( http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspx?parentpriref=)